Tattenham Corner

Georgie Thompson, the Sky Sports News presenter, has talked of her hopes for improvement from her horse Primaeval. Photograph: Steven Paston/Action Images

Quantum cost for dinner

Tony McCoy, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, is used to attending functions as the star guest but the boot was on the other foot week when the champion jumps jockey enjoyed dinner in Mayfair with the Bond actress Dame Judi Dench. McCoy's wife, Chantelle, teamed up with Pam Deal, the wife of racehorse owner Peter Deal, to bid £1,500 in an auction at the Betfair Pride of Racing Awards in order to have dinner with Dame Judi and her racing manager, Brian Agar, the event raising a total of £43,500 for Racing Welfare.

Tomorrow never dies

In the present financially testing times, plenty of stables are feeling the pinch and being forced to find ways to cut costs. But few trainers are as overt about the difference that one owner has made to their fortunes as Clive Brittain is about his principal backer, Saeed Manana. After winning the Oh So Sharp Stakes at Newmarket, the veteran trainer interrupted a conversation with the press to thank the winning owner for his ongoing support. "Well done for keeping me in business," he said.

Come on Georgie's boy!

Primaeval is never short of famous supporters and while it was the Sky Sports News presenter Georgie Thompson who watched him run at Kempton a few weeks ago, the even better-known TV duo Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly were on hand to see the horse finish second at Ascot. Donnelly and Thompson, who were formerly in a relationship, each own a quarter-share in Primaeval. In an interview in the Daily Mail last week, Thompson said the five-year-old was "marvellous at going backwards and we hope may soon learn to run forwards".

No names in vain

Paul Hancock picks unusual names for the horses he owns, but all was revealed after Caravan Rolls On's impressive win at Ascot on Friday. "The first horse I had with [trainer] Peter Chapple-Hyam was called Dogs May Bark, as there's an old Arab saying 'dogs may bark but the caravan rolls on'," Hancock explained. "I think people thought I was hoping Sheikh Mohammed would notice and want to buy the horses, but it wasn't the case."

Smith helps to raise the bar

The former Ladbrokes on-course representative Derrick Smith has quickly made his mark as a major player in the Coolmore bloodstock empire since first teaming up with John Magnier and JP McManus in the ownership of some of the world's best horses a few years ago. This week Smith joined forces with the same men off the track in a City announcement that could make the trio emerge the driving force behind the Mitchells & Butlers pub group that owns chains such as O'Neills and All Bar One. Only hours after a stock exchange announcement from Elpida, the investment company of Magnier and McManus, confirmed ownership of nearly 21% of the business, a revised announcement was jointly issued with a company called Smoothfield Holdings that notified regulators that between them they now controlled 24.2% of M&B.

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